Tracking a series of thefts as brazen as the art heists in Provenance and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire's Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime. The Map Thief interweaves Smiley's escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. Now, through a series of exclusive interviews with Smiley and other key individuals, Blanding teases out an astonishing tale of destruction and redemption.

Moreover, although Smiley swears he has admitted to all of the maps he stole, libraries claim he stole hundreds more-and offer intriguing clues to prove it. Though pieces of the map theft story have been written before, Blanding is the first reporter to explore the story in full-and had the rare privilege of having access to Smiley himself after he'd gone silent in the wake of his crimes. Acclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World, and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief-until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects. In 1984, he struck out on his own, at age 28.Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers-both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. Altman, the stately Fifth Avenue department store. Soon after graduating, he moved to New York and apprenticed in the rare-book and map division at B. Not surprisingly, Smiley's unusual interests led him to an unconventional career. In 1974, he left for Hampshire College, where he drove an old Checker cab and made dollhouse furniture for extra cash. Smiley's childhood in Bedford, N.H., was, by his own reckoning, 'idyllic.' He thrived in the close-knit town and at the 'experimental' high school that his parents had helped to found. The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps. In 'The Map Thief,' Michael Blanding intersperses the tale of Smiley's theft of nearly 100 maps between 20 with the histories of mapmaking and of the pioneering works that Smiley coolly pilfered. Forbes Smiley III, with his classical education, third-generation suffix and 'rich, nasally' accent, is hardly an ordinary felon. 'This is Forbes Smiley, from the Vineyard.' Would that all criminals introduced themselves with such genteel address.

The Map Thief by Michael Blanding